A number of military personnel are turning to the surgical procedure to remove excess fat from around the waist so they can pass the Pentagon's body fat test, which can determine their future prospects in the military.
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Some service members say they have no other choice because the Defense Department's method of estimating body fat is weeding out not just flabby physiques but bulkier, muscular builds.
I can see how there COULD be a problem, but most likely not with ALL of them. They do let too many fatbodies in, but when I went to boot camp I had been power lifting for 5 months straight to get ready, and on off days was improving my time on the 3 mile run.... I was the biggest guy there on day 1. The DI's actually had to check me out to see if I was overweight and had to go on half-rations.... fortunately there were a few brain cells between them. Even a regular sized meal left you still hungry when you were burning so many calories sunup to sundown.
I went in a bruiser but came out streamlined. Best shape of my life, on graduation day. All downhill since.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
'I've actually had commanders recommend it to their troops,' Pasquale said. 'They'll deny that if you ask them. But they know some people are in really good shape and unfortunately are just built wrong.'
Fitness expert Jordan Moon said there is no reliable, economical way to measure body fat, and troops should be judged more by physical performance so they're not feeling forced to go to such lengths to save their careers.
No reliable, economical way to measure body fat, let alone overall fitness? The hell you say. That means things like brainless charts based on dumb-ass statistics must be out, too. Oh wait...
Even so, his branch heeded the complaints and modified its fitness program in October. The Air Force obtained a waiver from the Pentagon so airmen who fail the tape test but pass physical fitness exams can be measured using the Body Mass Index, which is a chart based on an individual's weight and height.
... that's the backup plan. Fucking jeebus forbid they measure things like your respiration/O2 recovery rates, you know, things that provide useful info about your ability to operate under stress.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
I contend there IS a reliable, economical way to estimate body fat: just fucking LOOK at a person. If they got a chubby-cheeked baby face, chances are good they got a high BF%. If you want to REALLY check, get some fucking calipers; it takes like 30 seconds to do 3 pinches and look it up in a table.
Obviously, actual physical performance is probably what ought be measured, and obviously the requirements are different depending on MOS. I get that. But my point is: it's not really rocket science to figure out if somebody is too fat. I get that, as a beaurocracy, the military has to have SOME kind of objective measurements and standards, and maybe those might not be optimal. But haven't these people ever heard? "Right Way, Wrong Way, [Army/Navy/etc] Way"
